What have you done for me lately?

Let’s face it, acquiring new customers is an expensive and time consuming business. So it follows that selling more to your existing customers represents low hanging fruit in the marketing orchard.

So this week I want to make a very simple suggestion. Talk to your customers – regularly. By this I don’t mean ad hoc conversations that happen in the course of doing business. I mean structured, diarised reviews.

Go armed with some questions. Get feedback on what they like and don’t like about your product or service. Ask them what you do well and what you might do better.

This simple action delivers a double whammy of benefits. You get valuable insights that will help you develop your product or service, directly in line with customers’ stated needs. But if that wasn’t enough, just having the conversation often creates the opportunity to sell them more of the same, or something additional from your box of tricks.

It’s amazing how many businesses get so caught up in the new business chase that they overlook their existing customers as a rich seam of income that can be developed and mined. . .

And clients/customers love to be loved. It’s something we forget at our peril.

Sara is a marketing specialist with a wealth of on-line and traditional experience. With award winning credentials as an advertising writer, her career also spans the disciplines of planning and strategy for both B2B and consumer clients. Having worked for one of the the UK's biggest non-London agencies, Sara now works on a consultancy basis for clients large and small. http://www.smallbizpod.co.uk/blog